Friday

"Homosexuality is a sin." How many times have we heard that? One hundred times? One thousand?

The trouble starts when we begin reading "homosexuality" into the biblical text, because that idea as we understand it just isn't there. Although it condemns various same-sex sexual activities, like prostitution and pederasty, scripture is silent about what modern readers understand as sexual orientation, same-sex attraction, or monogamous relationships between adults of the same gender.

The bible is not nearly as clear about homosexuality as heterosexual Christians like to imagine or preach. Christians who insist that homosexuality is sinful may think they're "loving the sinner, hating the sin," but in reality they condemn and stigmatize people made in God's image, and that is not the place of a people called to love our neighbors.

Each of us has the ability to honor God with our whole selves, including our sexuality. But how many stories have you heard or lived in which gay Christians are kicked out of communities for merely acknowledging their sexual orientation, a thing that cannot be changed and simply is.

How do churches expect gay Christians to remain faithful to Christ? If we're honest, do we offer gay Christians anything more than:

"Homosexuality is a sin,"

"Don't be gay," and

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out" ?

I have to believe that Jesus would respond wholly different than his Church does when it comes to loving our queer brothers and sisters.

When churches insist that homosexuality is a sin:

We draw lines, make assumptions, and cause lasting trauma.

We exclude gay Christians and seekers from feeling welcome in our churches and exercising their own God-given gifts.

We fail to wrestle through, articulate, and live out together a sexual ethic that honors God and includes everyone.

We pretend that:

Being gay is a choice to get out of wrestling with harder questions about interpreting scripture, the character of God, community life, power, the nature of sexuality, discrimination, privilege, and more.

Being a Christian means being straight and feeling at home in the gender we were assigned at birth.

It is possible to "pray the gay away," and that conversion therapy is not itself inhumane, unscientific, and spiritually abusive.

The answers are easy and straight, cisgender Christians know them best.

Claiming homosexuality as sin is dehumanizing and dishonest. It stops conversations, burns bridges, and compromises Christians' ability to live out the gospel and love our neighbors well.

Homosexuality isn't some abstract political issue. People matter. Language matters. Sin matters, but that's true for each of us, individually as well as systemically. We're hardly closing our doors to the self-righteous among us and are barely scratching the surface of recognizing the Church's historical and ongoing, sinful contributions to rampant homophobia and discrimination, so why has the Church made homosexuality into its deal-breaking, flagship sin?

The gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, and intersex men and women within our churches and communities aren't projects to fix but our sisters and brothers, members of one Body of Christ. The last thing that Christians are called to do is drive seeking, hurting, and faithful people away from Jesus with hard or careless rhetoric, easy answers, and lack of grace.

If we truly desire to be faithful to Christ, we must be known by our love above anything else. Straight, cisgender Christians have had more than enough to say about the sexuality and lives of other people--who hold far less structural power--for far too long. Let's love our neighbors by listening better this time around, remembering that Jesus had not one word to say about homosexuality.

Some evangelical churches are realizing that loving well means supporting equal rights and marriage equality, and that legislating theology from the halls of power is a far cry from where Jesus dwells at the margins. Christ's love ought to be fleshed out among us first, infusing and transforming our own heart and communities with new life.

As we practice listening, humility, and faith together, may we learn what it looks like to honor God and one another with our language, our love, and our lives.

Thursday

I've been writing--just not here--and I miss you, lovelies. But I've got these ones, I do, and we're still coming down off our holidays. Sometime I'll tell you the story of how we interchanged all our bedrooms over Thanksgiving, and we're still finding homes for everything. The wee set share a room now, which has been its own adventure.

Vinyl butterflies still decorate walls that now belong to Jim and me. Will I know when it's time to surrender and pretend that "monarch" was our intended master bedroom motif all along?

Friday

O God, your star once shone to show the world that your Son, our Savior, had come. May the light of the star that guided wise men from the east now guide us. Grant us, like them, eyes to recognize the holy in the humble and respond with faith and worship.

As we work, serve and play, keep us in the light of your love. ALL: May Christ bless our home!

ONE: May all be welcome here,
friend and stranger, near and far.
May each be honored as they enter
and blessed as they leave.

ALL: There is a friend's love in the gentle heart of our Savior.For love of him we offer friendshipand welcome every guest.

ONE: May God bless this house
from roof to floor, wall to wall,
end to end,
from its foundation and in its covering.
In the name of the triune God,
let all disturbance cease and
captive spirits free.
May God’s Spirit alone
dwell within these walls.

ALL: Christ, in our coming and in our leaving, be the Door and the Keeper, for us and all within this place, this day and always.Amen.

Now, door lintels are marked in chalk with:

20 + CMB + 12

The numbers signify the new year, the crosses represent Christ, and CMB stands for Christus Mansionem Benedicat, Latin for May Christ Bless This House. It also recalls the (apocryphal) names of the three wise men [Casper, Melchior, and Balthazar], who followed the star from the east and
symbolize that the Light of Christ is for all people.

Sunday

i love the new year. the romance of a fresh start in the bleak mid winter beats back-to-school shoes every time. possibility whispers my name as crisp new calendars replace the ragged, and i'm enough of an idealist to believe that it's never too late to be the change.

discipline and intentionality are both areas where i desire growth this dawning year, but ultimately, the word that best captured my heart's cry is Love.

is there anything so simple or radical?

there are no short cuts in Love. God knows i love the short cuts, but this year, i'm taking the long way: the one that serves and gives and hopes and protects and reflects the very image of God.

that Way.

i know that my own love is insufficient. my love has limits. most days, my selfishness is bigger than my love.

but God's Love is big. his Love is transforming this world and this heart, and his power is made perfect amid weakness. he is faithful to complete the good work begun in us. i'm leaning into that promise.